


you got me blinded (it's not the way I planned it)

by Blacksneakers



Category: The Wilds (TV 2020)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:55:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28421313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blacksneakers/pseuds/Blacksneakers
Summary: Toni and Shelby, on the island. Canon up to 1x10 (no shark).
Relationships: Shelby Goodkind/Toni Shalifoe
Comments: 3
Kudos: 240





	you got me blinded (it's not the way I planned it)

**Author's Note:**

> title from "...Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears.

“I still can’t believe I tried to give myself a haircut.” Shelby tries and fails to untangle her hair, something she’s been attempting to do for the better part of an hour. “If my parents saw me looking like this I really do think they’d kill me.”

“It could’ve been worse,” Toni offers. “It wasn’t, like, full on Britney. You didn’t, you know—” She mimes shaving her head and makes a buzzing noise. 

Shelby laughs. “Thanks for your support.”

“Hey, that’s what I’m here for.”

Shelby’s smile turns into a grimace when she hits an especially large knot. “I give up,” she says, punctuating the announcement by flopping flat on her back on the beach. “If I had gone full on 2007 Britney I’d probably look better than I do now.” She runs her fingers across the sand, then looks back at Toni. “When the Britney Spears tour came to Dallas and I was like, 8, my dad took us to the concert so we could stand outside and picket it.”

Toni looks at Shelby incredulously. “Seriously? Why?”

“Because she was a ‘bad influence on America’s Christian youth,’” Shelby says, saying the last few words in a deep, exaggerated voice that Toni assumes is supposed to be an imitation of her dad. “I wasn’t even allowed to watch her music videos when I was a kid. My dad said listening to sexual music would put me on a path to impurity.”

“He was probably right,” says Toni, mock-seriously. “When I was 11 I watched the Baby One More Time video every day on Martha’s mom’s computer, and look at me now.”

“You watched it every day?” 

“Yeah, I told Martha that I just really, really liked the song. Then she tried to teach me the choreography and I had zero interest in that, I just wanted to watch—what’s so funny?” Toni narrows her eyes at Shelby.

“I’m just picturing Martha trying to teach you to dance like Britney,” Shelby laughs. “Did she ever figure out why you really wanted to watch it so often?”

Toni shrugs. “I mean, probably? It was pretty fucking obvious.” She looks at Shelby and grins. “Even back then, I had a thing for blondes.”

Shelby shoves her. “You’re so annoying,” she says, but Toni can’t help but notice that she’s blushing. She’s debating whether she should point it out when she hears yelling from the other end of the beach. She looks toward the source of the noise, where she sees Dot and Fatin getting into a heated argument over the rules of Uno. Again.

“How many times do I have to say it?” Dot groans. “If you draw from the deck, then you have to play the card you draw, you can’t just play any card you want.” 

Shelby throws her head back and looks at the sky. “You’d think they would have figured out the rules by now.” 

“Nah,” says Toni. “I’m pretty sure Fatin knows how to play, she just likes starting shit.” Toni looks at the group of them—Dot and Fatin still bickering, Leah half asleep with her head in Fatin’s lap, Nora scribbling in her notebook like always, Rachel getting involved in the argument, and Martha looking at her and Shelby like she’s trying to work something out in her head. Toni waves at Martha, showy and a little obnoxious; Martha smiles and rolls her eyes. Toni turns around to face Shelby, and at first she doesn’t say anything at all, just watches her toy with her cross necklace, the knots in her hair long forgotten. She puts her hand on Shelby’s knee. “Hey.”

Shelby lets go of her necklace and places her hand on top of Toni’s. “Hey.”

Toni clears her throat. “Do you wanna get out of here?” 

Shelby smiles—not the perfect pageant queen smile she gave everyone the first few days on the island. A different smile, softer and somehow more real. “Yeah,” she says. “Let’s go.”

Toni stands up, dusts the sand off her knees, and reaches for Shelby to pull her up. “Hey,” she yells; the others turn away from their mostly abandoned Uno game. “Shelby and I are going to get more water.”

Leah sits up and stares at both of them, suddenly surprisingly alert. “Why do you have to go together?” 

Toni can feel herself getting defensive. She doesn’t even want to look at Shelby, afraid of what she’ll see if she does, but then Fatin, of all people, comes to the rescue. “Because it’s safer that way,” she tells Leah, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “We’ve gotta use the buddy system, right, Dorothy?” Dot raises her eyebrows. “Wow, you actually listened to something I told you? I’m shocked.” 

“Yeah, the buddy system,” says Toni, grabbing Shelby’s arm and pulling her away from the group. “Bye!” As they walk away, she hears Martha say, “Have fun!” in the same tone of voice she used when she walked out of Biology last year, leaving Toni to do her lab with Regan instead. Leah goes back to using Fatin as a pillow, clearly no longer interested in Toni and Shelby.

When they get away from the others, Toni finally works up the nerve to look at Shelby. She expects to see embarrassment, maybe even irritation, but Shelby’s just smiling. “What?” Toni asks. 

“Nothing,” Shelby says. They walk for a few minutes in silence before Shelby turns to Toni and says, very seriously, “Thanks for being my buddy.” Toni rolls her eyes. Shelby’s smile grows wider; she holds out her hand. “Do you want to hold my hand, buddy?” 

Toni scowls. “You’re ridiculous,” she says, but she takes Shelby’s hand anyway, lacing their fingers together and squeezing. 

“So where are we going?” Shelby asks. “Are we actually getting water?”

Toni stops walking. “We could do that,” she says. “But I was thinking..maybe we could get more lychees instead?”


End file.
